Has anyone seen an Ontario political leader recently, or are people content with glimpses of Stephen Harper?

Premier Dalton McGuinty and other Ontario party leaders have almost disappeared during the summer, while the Conservative prime minister and his chief challenger, Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff, are in view every time you switch on TV or open a newspaper.

This is a big mistake by the Ontario politicians, who appear to have assumed that nobody is interested in politics in summer, when Harper and Ignatieff are proving the opposite.

The federal leaders face a possible election soon, so it can be argued they need to be in the field earlier, but there have been many alarms of a federal election that turned out false.

But the Ontario politicians are committed to fight an election in October of next year, so the time they are losing for promoting themselves this summer could be valuable.

McGuinty and Progressive Conservative leader Tim Hudak, his main challenger, cannot be accused exactly of being missing in action, but little has been seen of them compared to their federal counterparts.

The Liberal premier has emerged only a handful of times, and these have been not to advance his party’s fortunes, but merely rescue missions aimed at shoring up his crumbling empire.

The premier had to apologize and shelve a program under which his government allowed retailers to collect fees on articles they sold that could harm the environment, which they could not have done without his knowledge.

He then felt obliged to shuffle his cabinet, but stopped short of boasting he now has a team he would be proud to lead in an election, because it would not have rung true.

McGuinty has not said a word about a new outbreak of shootings and knifings that are killing people, mostly young black men, in some of Toronto’s poorest areas and making them sound like Dodge City.

The premier did not even make an effort to reply to demonstrators against his laws controlling pit bulls, considered the most dangerous dogs, although the allegation he protects residents too much is shaping to be a major issue in the coming election.

Hudak, after some aggressive speeches in the early summer, has barely been seen since.

The Tory leader may feel he does not have to do much after a poll for the first time showed he is ahead of McGuinty, 36 to 35 per cent, but this does not leave a large margin for relaxation.

The poll also provided some questionable findings.

It said respondents feel they can It said respondents feel they can trust Hudak more and believe he has a better vision for Ontario, which surprised those who cover the legislature daily and are are still waiting for the Conservative leader to reveal enough policies to be called a vision.

These defects suggest that the Ontario leaders should be attempting

Ontario leaders should be attempting now to improve their images.

Harper has spent a lot of time in the Arctic, promising to defend Canada’s sovereignty, spend more money there and talking of nation-building, which will please many Canadians.

He has been helped by many pictures of him driving an all-terrain vehicle over the ice and joining in traditional native dances, adding to the image he has been trying to create for months as an ordinary guy.

Harper also has been in more accessible areas preaching his gospel of getting tougher with criminals and more recently people who come trying to avoid regular immigration channels.

Ignatieff, after a slow start when his cross-Canada tour bus broke down, has been getting some helpful publicity.

He says he has stopped in 126 communities and has not found anyone who believes Harper’s claim the national census he wants to cut unacceptably invades personal freedoms.

Reporters following his tour say he also has been able to shed some of the image he has as a snob with little interest in ordinary Canadians.

Who says politics takes a holiday in summer?